My Brother's Keeper
by Chiharu-Chan
Summary: Preclude to Integrate. Hao doesn't understand why his little brother likes Anna so much. Side-line YohAnna. Oneshot.


A short snippet, because I haven't written any YohAnna in a long time. This takes place... Four or five years before **Integrate**, and Hao's only twelve. But of course, we often deny that and tell ourselves that he's _really_ too mature. 

Disclaimer: I do not own Shaman King; it is rightfully copyrighted to Hiroyuki Takei, TV Tokyo, Shonen Jump, Fox Box, etc. 

**My Brother's Keeper**

By: Kitori Chiharu 

Hao never understood his little brother. He admitted that he wasn't the best Aniki in the world, but that doesn't mean they weren't close. It's simply the fact that he couldn't understand _why_ a cheerful kid like Yoh would ever like one Kyouyama Anna. 

The blonde was harsh, snipe, rude, and somewhat insensitive to Hao. She always had a expression-less look on her face, and her voice was permanently neutral. 

The first time Yoh brought her home, she and Hao clashed horribly. Anna, supposedly, stood up for Yoh while he was being bullied. While Hao was busy feeling guilty about not being able to help his little brother, the girl had made a callous comment about his choice of clothing. 

Hao was always the crazy twin. He did not care about what others thought of him, but having a stranger affront him was a remarkable dent to his pride. Needless to say, they broke into an all-out war. 

Every time Anna was invited over for dinner, because their mom was intrigued by the girl, Hao would compete with her in a glare-contest. He refused to talk to Anna, because he -and he was not proud of this- knew he would lose to her in a comment war. 

When the twins entered junior high, Yoh was even more attached to Anna. Hao felt like she was stealing his twin away, almost. Again, he couldn't understand why Yoh was so attracted to her. Yoh would almost mention something about Anna during dinner; Anna scored the highest grade on the test, Anna made him clean her locker, Anna this, Anna that. Blah, he wanted to puke. 

Although Hao had different courses as Anna, he would constantly see her in the halls of St. Rudolph Jr. Academy. Most of the time, he would ignore her like plague, but today was different. 

"We need to talk." 

Anna froze from slammed her locker shut. She paused to look at the boy, a slightly surprised look on her face. "What for?" 

"It doesn't matter." Hao waved it off. "I'll see you in the Library, fifth block. You have a free period, right?" 

"Yes." 

"Later." He ended the conversation, heading off to Geometry. They rarely talked. Even when they did, their conversations were always short like that. His attention span was lost during the entire class, and he found himself looking out the window. 

"Hao?" Namari waved a hand in front of his face. "Kid, are you dosing off?" 

"Uh?" Hao blinked. 

"Dear god." Namari clasped his heart in mock dramatics. "After all these years, I'm finally starting to rub off on you. Go on, say something disturbing like I would." 

"You're sick." He pushed the older boy back with on the head. 

"No, seriously." The patch boy straightened up. "You're looking disorganized, that's just _wrong_. What's up, my self-esteem posse member?" Namari was just like that, sickly sarcastic. 

"I told Anna to meet me in the library, that was stupid." He pulled his hand up, running it through long strands of hair. "I have nothing to say to her." 

"Hn." Namari leaned over his seat. "Tell her that she's a arrogant, truth-depriving, overly determined, and insane madman. That's the truth." 

"But Yoh likes her." Hao pointed out, voice flat. 

"Yoh likes a bunch of people. He's even nice to the _lunch lady_, that really doesn't set the bar very high." The older boy point out and smirked, folding a paper-football with his homework. 

"But why does he like her?" Hao insisted. Namari was crazy, but he did know a lot of unthinkable and absurd things. 

"Ah. Why does he like her? Why do all the girls flawn over me? Why does McDonalds have to be fattening? Why does my parents have to be total asses and make me go to school?" The sophomore sighed fakely. "It's all just a part of life. If I had a girlfriend for every-time someone asked me that, I'd have a harem already." 

"You _already_ have a harlem." The older Asakura twin declared, slightly un-amused. 

"Kid." Namari turned around, pulling on Hao's hair. "He's your twin, and he really likes Kyouyama. As greatly as I am appreciated with the ladies, she never takes a look my way. Why? Because she obviously really likes Yoh back. Why could you _not_ want a girl with such personality to be your sister-in-law?" 

"She-" Hao closed his mouth shut, pausing. 

"She's got character." Namari shrugged. "And she obviously cares a lot about your brother." 

True, Hao has seen the small exchange of looks that he probably wasn't suppose to see. The way Yoh smiles when he sees her and how Anna's eyes softened when she talked to him. "I guess." 

"And it's because Anna only cares about Yoh. Heck, she _slapped_ me when I tried to talk her. And she only grunts a little when Yoh hugs her. That's just harsh. For me." 

"What if I don't like her?" 

"You'll have to like her." Namari answered with ease. "Because Yoh loves her, and you love Yoh. So sometimes you just have to make due and understand that. You're his brother, she's just some girl he's currently infatuated with, but he'll be more hurt if you don't like her than vise versa." The way he said it, it almost made Hao feel guilty. 

"Isn't Namari smart?" The girl behind him whispered to her friend, the said boy turned around to offer her a charming smile. Hao dismissed all that in the background, trying to come up with some sort of reply in his defense. The truth was that he had nothing to say, Namari was completely right. 

Maybe he was just being selfish in wanting to keep Yoh to himself, but at least Anna understood that enough. To some degree, Hao might even say that he respected Anna enough to trust her with his brother. He was only twelve years old, but he knew that Yoh really did like Anna, a lot. 

Somehow, he realized that he really _didn't_ have much to say to Anna. "I get it." He pulled onto Namari's sleeve, making the teen look back. Yoh liked Anna so much that he was afraid of what Hao would think of her, and Hao cared about his twin enough to question Anna's reliability. That means he already admitted to himself that Anna was important to Yoh. 

It was just too simple. "She's my brother's keeper." 

**Fin**

Review, please? 

Chiharu 


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